Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,
Philippians 1:6,9,10

As I’ve mentioned before, Bobby usually helps the boys with their homework. It started 6 years ago with Carson and it’s continued down the line with Chase as well. After dinner, the kitchen table is homework station. I am always here if they need some extra help, but it’s them and their daddy, figuring out school lessons.

This year, Chase has a spelling test every week. And every week, Chase brings home a 100% on that test. I was a bit curious how he always got a 100, and the other night, I learned why. Bobby had to take Carson to a Boy Scout meeting and wasn’t going to be home till bedtime, so Chase and I were doing the spelling.

And they have a system. Bobby folds a piece of paper into forths and Chase has to write the spelling words on each side. It ends up they go over these words eight times!

Well, the first time we did it, Chase had missed most of the words. So I showed him the correct spelling and he wrote them again. Again, I think he missed one or two. So I corrected them again for him. Then we went through the process six more times and I think all six of those times Chase got them all correct. But he didn’t stop once he got them right one time. No sir’ee. He had a system for learning and he knows that by repeating those words over and over again, he’ll get the correct spelling into his mind.

It was a little monotonus, honestly, for me to repeat them over and over again, but there was no way Chase was going to stop until he’d done them all eight times!

In September of 2000, I went to a Bible Study to try to figure out this whole God thing. I had some head knowledge from my time in church as a child, but I had no heart knowledge of who Jesus was. I had never attended a Bible study, nor really spent any time reading God’s Word. Within just a few weeks, I accepted Jesus into my life and really started grasping his great love for me.

But I didn’t stop learning about him – studying his word. In fact, I couldn’t get enough. Sometimes I would go to three studies a week. Sometimes I was just in one. But for the last 7 1/2 years, I have faithfully attended those weekly studies and kept myself grounded by being in God’s Word.

I’ve never thought, “Oh, I know this stuff. I don’t have to go to the studies any longer.”

Chase knows that if he goes over and over those spelling words, he’ll have them secured in his head on test day and I’ve learned that if I stay grounded in God’s Word, I’ll have it secured in my heart when the tests of life come heading my way.

Father thank you for the instruction book that you’ve given us and for patiently going over these lessons with me. I am always in awe that a truth that I’ve learned before seems to take on new meaning when I go over it again. And Lord, thank you for the tests. It’s nice to see the positive fruit. And Lord Jesus, thank you for Chase’s willing heart to learn. I pray you will continue to nurture that in every aspect of his life.